The search of the engineer company along the river lasted all night, but until it was dawn, no one found Sokarov's whereabouts. Considering that if the soldiers stayed by the river after dawn, they would become targets for German shooting, Sokov had no choice but to make a painful decision and ordered the engineer company to terminate the search.
Sokov had just returned to the command center and was reporting to Cuikov about searching for Sokharov. Suddenly, a rumbling explosion came from afar. Cuikov walked to the window of the mill and looked in the direction where the sound came. He saw black smoke rising from the direction of the river, and enemy planes hovering in the air.
Seeing this situation, Cuikov frowned and said, "The Germans are bombing the positions by the river. It seems that they are preparing to launch a large-scale attack."
"Comrade Commander," as soon as Cuikov finished speaking, Adjutant Krimov continued: "We have successfully blown up the pontoon bridge on the river, and the Germans cannot cross the Aksai."
"Krimov, you think too simple." Trekov immediately poured cold water on Krimov's naive thoughts: "Do you think a mere Aksai River can block the progress of the German Armored Division? Don't look at how we successfully blow up a pontoon bridge last night, I dare to assure you that today they can rebuild at least two, three or even more pontoon bridges on the Aksai River."
"Comrade Commander, if the enemy tanks crossed the river, our infantry could not stop them at all." Krimov couldn't help but panic: "What should we do?"
It is hard to cook without rice. Cui Kev knew very well that he did not have decent artillery or tank troops in his hands. It was a dream to block the German armored division. Therefore, after hearing Krimov's question, he was silent for a moment and said, "We can only rely on the existing fortifications to consume the German army's vitality to avoid letting more enemies rush towards Stalingrad."
When Sokov, who was standing by, heard him say this, he thought to himself: Fortunately, I was smart and asked Andre to bring the six cannons to Mamayev's hill early. Otherwise, when the German armored division crossed the river, these cannons would either be destroyed or seized by the German army. Instead of being cheaper than the Germans, it would be better to keep them and be used for great purposes in the future.
Perhaps in order to prevent the repetition of the same mistake, the German army, who had already made sufficient preparations, once the bombing was over, they continued to bombard the Soviet positions on the north bank with artillery fire to cover their engineers to set up pontoon bridges on the Aksai River.
The German army suffered a great loss in the defense area of ​​the Lyudnikov Division yesterday. Today they selected the location of the crossing of the river in the defense area of ​​the 157th Division. Kuropacinko, who was standing in the observation center, let the soil that was shaken by the explosion of shells above his head fall on his military cap and shoulders, but stood there motionlessly holding the telescope and looking towards the other side of the river.
The German army on the other side gathered about twenty tanks, hundreds of soldiers, and established more than a dozen machine gun positions on the shore and set up a row of mortars. As soon as the Soviet firepower point counterattacked, they carried out a targeted removal.
Standing next to the colonel was his chief of staff. Seeing this, he said with a worrying look: "Comrade Commander, if the German pontoon bridge is built, their tanks will rush to the north shore. With our existing troops and equipment, we cannot stop them at all."
"You can't stop it, you must stop it." Kuropacyanko did not put down his telescope when he heard these words from his chief of staff, but said in a muffled voice: "Tell the officers and soldiers to firmly defend their positions, rather than expose the bones to the wilderness than to take a step back. They should not be afraid of sacrifice or blood, and they should fight to the last person and fight to the last bullet. The soldiers were exhausted and the officers filled in; the officers were exhausted, and I personally carried the cluster grenades to blow up the German tanks."
Chief of Staff originally wanted to complain a few times, but when he saw that the commander was determined to die, he did not continue to say it. He quickly straightened his body and replied, "I understand, comrade of the commander, we will definitely fight to the last person."
Perhaps he was worried that there would be a large number of Soviet anti-tank soldiers hidden on the north shore. After the two German floating bridges were installed, the first thing that rushed over from the bridge was not tanks, but groups of infantry. Seeing that the German attack began, Kuropacinko quickly grabbed the phone on the table, called the commander of the command center deployed at the forefront, and ordered the commander of the unit: "Comrade Commander, have you seen the Germans rushing up?"
The leader of the Frontier Regiment quickly replied: "I saw it, Comrade Commander."
Kuropacinko looked at the German infantry crossing the bridge from his telescope and shouted loudly: "Your regiment will charge me immediately! You must destroy all the enemies on the pontoon bridge, and they must not be allowed to climb the north shore."
With the order from Kuropacinko, countless soldiers jumped out of the trenches that were blown up and rushed towards the German army that was passing through the pontoon bridge. Seeing the Soviet army suddenly carrying out counterattacks, mortars deployed across the river to fire first.
The shells fell into the charge queue and exploded. From time to time, Soviet soldiers were overturned by the explosion's air waves or were cut down by flying shrapnel. Although people died every minute and every second, the surviving soldiers bravely passed through the shelling area and approached the floating bridge in the rapid whistle of the officers.
In order to prevent the Soviet army from approaching the pontoon bridge, the German machine gun fired on the shore. In the dense rain of bullets, blood mist burst out from the slightly crowded formation. The soldiers who were shot trembled like electric shock in the rain of bullets. Then the corpse was like a broken pocket thrown out, and was overturned by the huge impact force of the bullets. Although the comrades kept falling down beside them, the alive soldiers still howled and rushed forward, and the bodies covered their attack path. The soldiers who rushed to the pontoon bridge slashed the bullets in one breath, erected the shiny bayonets, stared at their blood-filled eyes, and screamed fiercely in hand-to-hand combat with the Germans.
Cuikov and Sokov stood on the hillside outside the command center and watched the fierce battle with a telescope. Seeing the soldiers rushing up the pontoon bridge without fear of death and engaged in close combat and hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, they couldn't help but sigh: "Our soldiers are so brave. As long as they are there, the Germans will definitely pay a heavy price to break through our defense."
But when Sokov saw this scene, he cursed in his heart: "This idiot, Kuropajianko, can obviously rely on existing fortifications to consume the vitality of the German army. Unexpectedly, water flew into his head and ordered the troops to carry out counter-charge, which resulted in a large number of soldiers dying on the charge, and they died miserably and not worth it."
Chapter completed!